


The Perks of Being a Stormtrooper

by maerisk



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Teen Angst, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 02:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7872523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maerisk/pseuds/maerisk





	1. Rey

“Shit,” Rey said as the elastic snapped against her wrist. She searched the top of the dresser for another. “Shit, shit, SHIT.” She padded behind photo frames, pulled open drawers. She was already running late and this was not helping. The pulled out the top two knots and pulled her hair back into one low-slung bun. She looked at herself in the mirror, flashing a big fake smile. “The garbage will do,” she winked.

She grabbed her bag and threw her books in it, praying she wasn’t forgetting anything. She grabbed her field hockey stick and slung it across her back as she ran downstairs and out the front door. 

Finn and Poe were already waiting outside in his red and white convertible (which she had known, because they hadn’t stopped honking). She scurried down the steps to the street and threw her bag in the back. “You’re late, Rey,” Poe says, glancing back as they pull out of her neighborhood.

“And your hair is… what’s wrong with your hair-- what did you do to your hair?” Finn asks, spinning around in his seat in feigned shock.

“Relax, boys,” she chuckled. 

“Oh you have your… your stick thing,” Finn notes, pointing at her field hockey stick. 

“I do,” she says, smiling without showing any teeth. The wind whips her hair out of the loose knot of the bun. She knew she’d be retying it all day. “Tryouts are this afternoon.”

“You’re gonna do great, buddy,” Poe calls back without looking. Rey could hear the smile in his voice.

“I know,” she smiles bigger this time, and fluffs the hair on the back of his head.

An old rock song comes on the radio and Poe turns it up as they hit an open patch of road where he can really punch the motor like he likes. Finn looks at him and smiles. 

Due to Poe’s creative and enthusiastic driving and some speed walking, Rey and Finn both make it to their lockers and to Home Room without winding themselves too much. School had only been in session for a week but already everyone had fallen into a routine. 

“You know the drill, soldiers, say here when I call your name,” Ms. “Captain” Phasma trumpets from the front of the room. She makes her way through the attendance list with no absences without looking up. If she had, she would have seen the tall, awkward, dark haired boy standing directly in the doorway. 

“And you are…?” she looks down her nose at the shadow in the archway. The boy is tall, but she’s taller. Rumor had it Captain Phasma used to be a professional wrestler (no one could substantiate this claim with any evidence, but the rumor still spread like wildfire among the freshman class every year). 

“Kylo Solo-Organa,” he mumbles, running a wiry hand through his black hair. He looked away and sniffled. 

“Ah, yes, Solo-Organa,” she says. “But here I have your name is Ben,” she says, pointing to a note on her desk - a pink post-it. You go by… what now?”

“Kylo,” he says a little louder. 

“I’m not calling you that,” she says. “Take your seat.”

The class stifles a laugh as “Kylo” takes the only open seat - one in the front row, right in the middle. His knees barely fit under the desk. 

Rey, who has been observing this from the back of the room with a half-bemused smile on her face turns to Finn. Her eyes widened as they exchange shocked and amused expressions.

The rest of the class passed without incident and Finn and Rey parted ways as she went to Honors Literature and he made his way to his History class. Finn’s last school taught World History in 9th grade and National history in Tenth, so he was a year ahead and a year behind. Either way, he was in a class with a group of Freshman who seemed to both adore and envy him. He couldn’t say he minded the attention. 

Finn wasn’t the best student, but if he kept his mind focused and his head down, he could keep up in class for the most part. Except in science. Finn had never been good at science. 

One of the Freshman girls was smiling at him with wide eyes when Rey jogged up to him after the class was over. She let her finish before waggling her eyebrows at Finn, seeing a blush rise in his cheeks. “What?” he asked, a little too nervously. 

“Nothing!” Rey laughed. “I just know you wouldn’t miss homecoming queen over there to think I was your girlfriend!” she pinched him on the arm.

“Uh, thanks,” Finn laughed, his voice cracking a bit. 

Rey knew he didn’t like the attention being drawn to him - in his previous life he was a name, a number - personalized attention scared him, like a spotlight being burned onto him. She reminded herself to be careful not to overdo it. She’d only known him a month and she already loved Finn like a brother.

“Do you need me to carry that?” Finn asked her, pointing to her backpack. Rey could admit the backpack weighed nearly as much as she did with all her books in it, but she didn’t mind. 

“I don’t,” she said with a smile, “but if you’re feeling generous you can buy me lunch.” Her stomach growled.

Finn smiled at her with a mock salute. 

The two made their way to the cafeteria which was already starting to fill quickly with hungry students. They made their way through the line, Rey salivating a little too much over the mediocre semblance of food presented to them. She was eyeing dessert when Finn asked her, “did you miss breakfast?”

She smirked at him. “Guess I forgot,” she said. She didn’t like Finn to know how poor her family was, or that they often couldn’t afford to keep food in the house. There were programs to feed kids like her, but what they lacked in money, Rey’s family made up for in pride. 

“Go ahead and get the dessert, peanut,” Finn says with a jokingly condescending pat on the head, as he put a brownie on her tray. 

Her smile fades for a second. “Thank you, Finn,” she says sincerely, trying to focus her gratitude into her look. He was a good friend. Rey didn’t remember the last time someone bought her… anything actually.

As they exited the lunch line with their trays, a booming “Finn!” called from across the room caught their attention. Poe was waving from a table near the door. 

“Does he think we’re not gonna sit with him?” Rey asked Finn, laughing.

“He does this every day, doesn’t he?” Finn smiled back.

Rey sat down with her tray and tried not to eat too quickly. She was starving, but eating too quickly always made her sick. 

“Are you ready for the tryout this afternoon?” Poe asked her.

“Oh, don’t remind me,” Rey mumbled in response, undeterred by her mouth full of food.

“I got you this,” Poe said, pulling a small brown bag out of his backpack. He set it on the table.

Rey reached for it. 

“You really went all-out with the wrapping, didn’t you Poe?” Finn joked.

The paper crinkled as she opened it. Inside were 3 hair ties, red and white, the school colors. Rey looked up at him. “How did you know? And where did you get these so fast?”

Poe smiled and winked at her. I called in some favors. They might be… used… but I washed them off in the sink. I thought they’d be good luck and besides, you look silly with your hair done all wrong.

Rey was already putting her hair into her typical tri-bun as he finished.

“Thank you, Poe,” she said. “I do feel really lucky today.”


	2. Finn

After lunch in the cafeteria, Poe walked Finn to his next class. “You got everything, buddy?” he asked, gesturing at the overflowing pile of books in Finn’s arms. “Where’s your backpack, anyway?”

“In my locker,” Finn gestured to down the hall in the general direction of his locker, “I thought I’d have time to go back between classes. It was stupid, I know.”

“What?” Poe said, loudly, lowering his head emphatically to force eye contact with Finn, “It wasn’t stupid. You’re not stupid. I won’t have anyone badmouthing my brother.”

Finn cringed. He’d been living with the Damerons for six months. It was his first placement since the boy’s school, and he wasn’t sure how to act. Both of his foster parents regularly called him “son” and referred to Poe as his “brother.” 

At the boy’s school, he was just a number, in more ways than one. It started on his first day of kindergarten. He’d been moved from an orphaned children's home to the boy’s school on a scholarship for underprivileged kids. 

“Boys,” the teacher cooed from the front of the classroom, “We have a new student today. This is…” she trailed off, and looked down at the paperwork in her hand. “2187? No, of course that’s not right. That’s your student number. Hold on, honey, what’s your name?” She knelt down to Finn’s eye level. He opened his mouth to say his name. “Finn,” he thought. But the word wouldn’t come out of his mouth. 

“Don’t be shy!” the teacher said, but he couldn’t do anything but cry. Large, rolling tears fell down his face. The kids called him 2187 for the next nine years. It was a surprise when in the summer after his Freshman year of high school, he got word that he’d been placed in a foster home. Almost no one left the school after age seven or so. He couldn’t explain it, but he refused to examine it any farther, afraid he’d realize it was all a dream or a cruel joke.

When Finn moved in with the Damerons, he called them “sir” and “ma’am.” 

“We’re not that formal here, son,” Mr. Dameron said. “Call me Pop. Or Kes.” Finn settled on Kes. He gestured to his wife, “and that’s Shara, or Mom if you want.” Finn nodded. 

He had his own room at the Dameron house. He hadn’t expected it - he’d never had his own room anywhere he’d lived. It wasn’t anything too impressive, but there was a bed, a dresser, a closet of his own, a bookshelf and a desk along the wall by the window that looked into their back yard. For the first week, Finn lived out of his suitcase where it sat on top of the dresser. 

His seventh morning at the Dameron house, Finn picked up his toiletry bag and walked to the bathroom to brush his teeth. The door was ajar and the light was on. He pushed it open with a hesitant hand to check to see if someone was in the shower. There wasn’t any water running.. 

“Hey buddy,” a voice came from inside. Poe was standing with a towel wrapped around his waist, applying shaving cream to his face. Finn swallowed.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were in here,” he apologized, pulling the door shut by the knob. 

The door flung back open inward.

“Where are you going, Finn?” Poe asked, leaning out the door. His jawline was half covered in shaving cream. 

“I’ll just use the bathroom later,” Finn said. 

“Do you gotta go?” Poe asked, directly, with a smirk on his face.

“What? No! No!” Finn stammered, feeling the heat rush to his face. “I was just gonna brush my teeth.” 

“I was wondering if you do that,” Poe laughed. “I haven’t seen a toothbrush in here since you moved in.” 

“Oh, yeah, I just uh - keep it with me. Old habits, I guess.” Finn tried desperately to look at anything but Poe.

“You should unpack, Finn.” Poe looked at him seriously, undermined by his white shaving cream beard, “You’re home now.” 

Finn stifled a smile, but managed to blurt out a “thanks.”

Finn folded his clothes into the dresser - it took less than an hour. Everything he owned only filled a single drawer and part of a second. He stared at the hangers in the empty closet, the lonely bookshelf. 

When he was done, he sat at the desk -- his desk. Wondering if maybe he could ask where the library was to find something to the stretch of weeks before school started, his gaze drifted out the window into the yard. Poe was outside, practicing. He was throwing footballs through the hole in a hanging tire swing. Finn watched him land throw after throw. It was almost hypnotic. Finn didn’t know anything about football, but Poe’s body moved with a precise grace each time, winding up, dropping back, and releasing the ball. 

After what seemed like an hour, Finn realized that Poe had glanced up towards Finn’s window. Finn instinctively ducked, but knew he’d been seen. Poe pointed a finger at the window, then to the ball, then to the window again. Finn furrowed his brow in confusion. Poe gestured again, this time pointing to himself, then Finn, then the football. Seeing the blank look on Finn’s face, Poe gestured once more, frustratedly, for Finn to open his window. 

“Come down here! We’re playing catch!”


End file.
